E 668 
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Copy 1 



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SPEECH 



HON. GEORCtE S. BOUTWELL, 



WEYMOUTH, MASS., 



JULY 4, 1865. 



BOSTON: 

WEIGHT & POTTER, PRINTERS, 4 SPRING LA.NE. 
1865. 



Iltrnnstmdbit : |ts Crm §iisb. 



SPEECH 



HON. GEORGE S. BOUTWELL, 



WEYMOUXH,,MASS., 



JULY 4, 1865. 



BOSTON: 

WRIGHT & POTTER, PRINTERS, 4 SPRING LANE. 

18 6 5. 



Weymouth, July 10, 1865. 

Dear Sir, — Bj' direction of the Committee of Arrangements for the celebration 
in Weymouth of the late Anniversary of our National Independence, I have the honor 
to express to you their cordial thanks for the very able, instructive and eloquent 
Address delivered by you before the citizens of this town on that occasion, and also 
to request from you the favor of a copy of the Address for publication. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Z. L. BICKNELL, 

Chairman Comniiitee of Arrangements. 

Hon. George S. Boutwell. 



Groton, July 12, 1865. 

Sir, — Be pleased to express to the Committee of Arrangements ray thanks for the 
vote passed by them requesting a copy for publication of the Address delivered by 
me on the 4th instant. 

It will give me pleasure to comply with the request. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

GEO. S. BOUTWELL. 
Z. L. BiCKNELL, Esq., Chairman of Committee of Arrangements. 



SPEECH: 



1 



Fellow Citizens, — The series of events of the 
last four years, eiidmg m the overthrow of the 
rebelhon, mipose upon us obhgations and duties 
more important and solemn than have rested upon 
the American people at any previous period 
in their histor}^ We are able, however, for 
the first time to rejoice in the complete, or, at 
least, in the near fulfilment of the great truths 
contained in the second paragraph of the Declara- 
tion of Independence. Our ancestors said : " We 
hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men 
are created equal, and that they are endowed by 
their Creator Avith certain natural, essential and 
unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness." They believed 
these cardinal truths; and Mr. Jefterson, in the 
original draft of the Declaration of Independence, 
charged the King of Great Britain, in addition to 
many other allegations, with the pre-eminent crime 
of having countenanced the African slave-trade, 
and opposed all measures for its overthroAv or 
restriction. We have passed through a great 
struggle, which was a necessary incident of oiu- 



national life, due to tlic fact, whk-h now Ave can 
comprelicnd, and wliich it is lu-itliei- disgrace to 
our fathers, nor dishonor to us, to confess, that 
our national system contained a fundamental error; 
namely, that it was possijjle to set np and main- 
tain jjermanently a government based in part 
upon the ])rinciple that " all men are created 
equal,"" and in i)ai-t upon the i)rinciple that a 
certain portion of mankind have the right to 
hold a certain other j^ortion in bondage. This 
was the experunent in government tried here by 
the adoption of the Constitution of 1789, and the 
experiment has fiiiled. The government which was 
then set up, founded in i)art upon the principles 
of freedom, and in part upon the jjrinciples of slav- 
er}", has failed ; it has gone do"\\ni in blood, amid 
horrors such as have not often been Avitnessed in 
Christian countries. There has been no failure of 
republican institutions; nothing has occuri-ed to 
diminish our confidence in the capacity of the people 
to govern themselves; but on the other hand, their 
conduct in relation to the questions and issues of 
the times is the sublimcst event of history, and fur- 
nishes conclusi\^' evidence that just governments 
are strong, and democratic governments arc wise. 
The question before us is, whether out of this strug- 
gh' tlu'i-c sliall couie a nation ])Ui"irK'd and glorious 
and |»('i maiu'iit in its institutions and in its policy 
or not. 



Thus far, lUKler Proviclence, the Union and the 
cause of justice have triumphed. We look upon 
the past with satisfaction, marred in two particuhu's 
only; first, that so many of the brave men of the 
Republic have fallen in defence of its principles and 
of its integrity; and secondly, that he who was the 
moderate, consistent and trusted leader of the 
people, finally became the great martyr to Repub- 
lican institutions, to the right of this nation to be 
free. 

I congratulate myself, and I congratulate you, 
that in the course of remark on which I purpose to 
enter to-day, I follow the lead of that great man, — 
who, intellectually and morally, will stand among 
the foremost men of this country, of this age, and 
of the world, — in reference to the rights of the 
negro race as citizens of this country, and inhabit- 
ants of this continent. We know now, from the 
record exposed since his death, that it was one of 
the objects which he had near to his heart, to secure 
to the negro population the right of suffrage, with- 
out which, I shall, as I think, be able to show you, 
there can, in this country, and under Republican 
institutions, be no security for any other right 
whatever. 

We have come out of the war triumphantly. 
We entered upon it, four years ago, reluctantly, 
uncertain as to the issue. There were those who, 
seeing beyond the present moment, were assured 



8 

fliat tlic i)('()])l(' Avlio occupied the continent, tlie 
descendants ol' the men who, in tlie first paragraph 
of the Deehiration of Independence, before the 
Constitntion was formed, or the Union, in terms, 
liad an existence, deehired that these then united 
colonies constituted one people, would never give 
up their right to he the inhabitants of a countiy 
indivisible and perpetual. That expectation, gen- 
tlemen, has not only been I'calized, but we have 
also subjugated those who, more than thirty years 
ago, treasonably conspired for the overthrow of 
this government, for the destruction of Rei3ublican 
institutions on this continent, and for the suppres- 
sion of the hopes of liberty and of freemen 
throughout the Avorld. They are sul)jngated; and 
tiie question remaining for you, citizen soldiers, 
for you, citizens of the Republic, to decide is, 
whether, in the reconstruction of the government, 
those men, and they who, like tliem in pi'inciple 
are like tliem also in ])ui poses, shall reappear 
to guide, control, disturb, and finally ruin the 
Kepublic ; or whether you will reconstruct the 
nation u])<)u the eternal princi])le of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, that '^ all men are created 
c'luai?" Justici', juKiivc is the only ibundation 
ibr statesman-^Iii|), tlie only security foi* national 
life, and oni" falln'i's, in (h'])arting Ironi tht> pi'in- 
<i|>l(' of jn>-ti('e, in llu' original construction ol' 
tills govermni'nt, Id't to tlieir j)osterity the woes 



9 

through Avhich we have passed. Believing, as I 
do, that these horrors, and sacrifices and sufferings 
are a just judgment of Heaven upon this nation, 
for its great sin in reference to the institution of 
slavery, — which is but one form of injustice, — so 
here and everywhere during these four years, I 
do pledge and have pledged myself to resist the 
re-establishment of this government upon the 
principle of injustice. If there be those, few or 
many, who, in their anxiety to reconstruct their 
government speedily, and according to its ancient 
forms, choose to forego the securities which ought 
to be taken, I have no lot or part with them. I 
prefer to stand alone upon the principle of justice 
as the only foundation on which the government 
can securely rest. And if there be those Avho 
choose to take the responsibility of becoming, in 
the eyes of posterity, the agents for the repeti- 
tion of the woes which we have endured, let 
the responsibility be upon them. I feel assured, 
however, that whatever ma}^ be the prejudices 
of some, whatever may be the influence of tradi- 
tion upon others, whatever may be the distinctions 
of race or color that exist among us, the people 
of this country are finally to re-establish the 
government upon the distinct enunciation of the 
doctrine that " all men are created equal." 
Building upon that foundation, the nation will 
withstand the storms and the floods of time; 



10 

iMit if you l)uild upon injustice, upon -wrong, 
U})()n distinctions of race, of color, oi- upon 
caste, 30U l)uikl upon the sand, and when the 
storms ^'onie, and the winds ]j1(jav, and the rains 
fall, I lull will the structure tliat you liave reared 
be l)rouij;ht (h)wn in ruin upon your lieads. 

Xor is the triunipli oi' the day limited to the 
restoration of the Union as a result, and the (over- 
throw of shivery as an incident of tlie war. We 
have phiced the United States, as a nation, in the 
front rank of the nations of the earth. We have 
had no Avar with England or Avitli France, and we 
trust that the time is far distant when there shall 
be any rupture of the relations of amity that now 
exist. This nation is foi; jDcace, as it ever 
has l)een- but in the subjugation of the reljcls 
of the South, we have conquered both England 
and France, as well as the enemies of Hepublican 
institutions the Avorld over. If you Avere to ask 
an Englishman Avhether France or the United 
States is the first naval and military poAver of the 
world, he Avould ansAver at once, the United States. 
If you Avere to ask a Frenchman Avhether England 
oi- the I nited States is the hrst naval and military 
jxjAvci', lu- would also ansAA'cr, the United States. 
If you Avere to ])ut the question to a Kussian, 
whether England or Fi'ance or the United States 
is the chief military and naval poAver of the Avorld, 
he AVijuld at once answer, the United States. As 



11 

Themistoclcs acquired the reputation of being the 
first general of Greece by the circumstance that all 
his rivals recognized him as the second in merit, 
each claiming to be the first himself, so we, by the 
judgment of the people of all those nations, are 
to-day accorded the first rank among the naval 
and. military powers of the earth. 

I hope you will pardon me, my friends, if 
now, before I proceed to the purpose which I 
have in view on this occasion, I refer to the 
circumstance of my invitation to speak here 
to-day, that there may be no misunderstanding 
on the part of any. Your committee, when 
thus honoring me, received the statement that 
I preferred not then to accept it, but rather 
desired that they should communicate to their asso- 
ciates of the committee and to the public possibly, 
to some extent, the fact that if I accepted the 
invitation, I must do it with the distinct under- 
standing that I was to discuss those topics, and 
those only, which concern the fortunes of the coun- 
tr3^ The time has long since passed when I had 
the ambition to speak for the purpose of sj^eaking; 
and during this war I have invariably declared what 
I believed to be the truth without regard to any 
consequences personal to myself. I wish thus early 
to state my views of the policy now pursued b}^ the 
administration in reference to the great subject of 
reconstruction, because it is quite likely there may 



12 

be some ])rc.sent who will draw inferences from what 
I shall oiler. If I imderstand President Johnson, 
he does not object to negro suttVage. It is, how- 
ever, his desire that the right should hd extended 
to the negroes of the once existing eleven States, 
recently in rebellion, by the white peojile of those 
States, wlio wci-e authorized to vtjte when the 
rebellion commenced. If negro suffrage can be 
secured in that way, I shall, for one, readily accept 
the result without any inquiry as to the means. 
But if, on the other hand, as I expect, the attempt 
to secure negro suffrage, thi'ough the white people 
of the eleven rebel States, shall I'ail, I then expect 
that President Johnson and those who are co- 
operating with him, Avill accept the judgment of 
the country, — if it sliall ])rove' to be the judgment 
of the coinitry, — that negro suffrage must be 
secured by some other means. Therefore, while 
I am content that these effort^s should be made, 
and while I shall Avelcome the result, if it be 
favorable, I look u])on the efforts as experiments, 
not ])inding u])on President Johnson or upon his 
administration or on the country; and as was the 
fact in 18G1 and '02, in reference to the expediency 
of emancipation, and the inrolnient of colored 
soldiers in the aiiiiv of tlie Kepublic, 1 now expect 
that the people will take this uKiiler into ihcii- own 
hands. I bchevi', with reference to President John- 
son, ;is ill |S(jl and '()!} I believed in reference 



13 

to President Lincoln, that he will accept the 
judgment of the country, if, upon the whole, 
the public opinion shall be that negro suffrage 
is essential to the security of the Union as well 
as to the protection of the negroes themselves. 
Therefore I counsel discussion, argument, on the 
part of those who believe in negro suffrage; 
jDatience, that those in authority may have an 
ojDportunity to make this effort to secure the 
reconstruction of the government according to the 
ideas that have first presented themselves to them ; 
that no one be committed to any particular line of 
policy, but all look to the grand result — the recon- 
struction of the government upon the jDrinciple of 
the equality of men. 

But such is my confidence in the justice of the 
policy Avhich we maintain, such my conviction of its 
necessity, that I am assured it does not only not 
need the support which we now attempt to render, 
but that its success is not even dependent upon the 
power of office or the wisdom of leaders. 

There was a Divine policy in our affairs which 
made emancipation a necessity; and we are now so 
subject to circumstances that all plans for the 
reconstruction of the govermnent which do not 
recognize the political rights of the negro are sure 
to fail. The white men of the ]N^orth must recog- 
nize the political rights of the black men of the 
South or surrender their own equality in the gov- 



14 

crnmc'iit of the country. They iinist decree political 
freedom for the l)hi(l<s or accept political inferiority 
for themselves. Hence I ^vell know in the begin- 
nin<^- what their conduct will be. Xor do I under- 
estimate the ap])arent difficulties in (jur way. There 
is first, the wide-spread and plausible error, which 
I shall attcm])t now to refute, that if we deny the 
existence of the eleven States as States, we admit 
the heresy of secession. There is next the prejudice 
against the negro race coupled with a sad misap- 
prehension as to his capacity to take care of himself 
and to serve the country; and finally there is the 
difficulty, amounting to an obstacle in the estimation 
of some, that certain of the loyal States do even now 
deny to the negro the right of franchise. But all 
these are errors, misfortunes and wrongs, rather 
than serious difficulties in our way. When slavery 
existed, citizenship was of course denied to the slave 
class in all the slave States. It was also natural in 
States where slavery did not exist, but where its 
ideas Avere carried by immigrants or where its social 
and business mfluences prevailed, or, possibly, by 
mere comity in some cases, that the public policy 
should be fashioned upon the theory that slavery, 
or at least, a condition of ])olitical inferiority was 
the |)r()|)i'r rortiiiie of the ])laek man. It is likely 
thai the overthrow of slavery will hv followed by a 
revision <>f this policy; but in any event the argu- 
ment in favor of negro sutfrage in the rebellious 



15 

districts is as valid when addressed to Illinois or 
Indiana as when "addressed to 'Ne^y York or Massa- 
chusetts. 

The war for freedom and the Union has been 
carried on by the whites and negroes born on this 
continent, by the Irish and the Germans, and indeed 
by representatives of every European race, ^^ith 
this fresh exjoerience we ought to make it a part of 
the organic government that no State shall make 
any distinction in the enjojTnent of the elective 
franchise on account of race or color. 

Asking you to bear with me while I proceed 
farther in the discussion of this subject, I desire to 
call your attention in the outset, to the question of 
the power of the National Government over the 
eleven States that have been engaged in this rebel- 
lion ; to the question of power with reference to the 
result we seek, the right of the negro to vote in the 
State where he happens to be. There are those 
who believe that these eleven States are States in 
the Union precisely as they were in 1860 ; or rather, 
there are those who use language which Avould lead 
us to believe that they are of opinion that the eleven 
rebellious States are still States in the Union. The 
fact, however, is, that the Government, during 
these foiu* years, has proceeded upon the idea that 
they were not States. President Johnson himself, 
in the declarations he makes to the provisional 
Governors whom he is just now appointing, says 



16 

that, in order tliat the' Kepresentatives of those 
States may be recognized by the Senate and House, 
they must abolish llic institution oC slavery, and 
ratify the amendment to the Constitution, ])roliilHt- 
ing shiveiy in the United States. AVould he 
address that language to !N^ew York, or (Jliio, or 
Massachusetts? In the very fact that provisional 
Governors are appointed, in the very fact that terais 
are made with those provisional Governors, and, 
through them, with the people, we liave evidence 
abundant that the President does not recognize 
these States as States in the Union, with the 
powers of the old States. They are in a difterent 
condition, confessedly. Will any one even i)retend 
that South Carolina has the same immediate, 
unquestionable, indisputable right of representation 
in the Senate and House that is enjoyed by Xew 
York and the other loyal States? In the House of 
Representatives, for example, although the Con- 
stitution of the United States says that a majority 
of the House shall be a quorum for doing busi- 
ness, and it would require one hundred and 
eighteen at least to make a majority of all the 
membei-s of the House of Representatives, including 
representatives fi'om the eleven disloyal States, we 
still lia\e been acting, — laws have been passed, 
armies have been raised, i)ubrK' dclii has been 
incurred. IjoikIs ha\i' l)een issued, — upon the |)rin- 
ciple that a (piorum was a majority of the rcprcsen- 



17 

tatives from the loyal States. JSTinety-four instead 
of one hmidrecl and eighteen has been the recog- 
nized quorum of the Thirty-Eighth Congress. We 
have acted upon the principle that those who 
were not present, who were voluntarily absent, 
were not to be considered or consulted at all; and 
in the same manner, gentlemen, we shall be obliged 
to act finally in reference to the amendment to the 
Constitution. There are twenty-five loyal States of 
the Union; there are eleven disloyal States, that 
have not been represented in either branch of Con- 
gress for four years; that have had neither gov- 
ernor nor judge nor legislator within their limits 
sworn to support the Constitution of the United 
States; but, on the other hand, all their State and 
local officers have taken an oath, abjuring the Con- 
stitution of the United States. I wish, in the 
beginning, to assail the doctrine that these States, 
because they were once States in this Union, are 
still States in this Union. We assert that they 
have ceased to exist, and I think I can show you 
how they have ceased to exist. Consider, first, 
how a State is created. It is created, as you all 
know, by the will of the people within its Imiits. 
How was Massachusetts created? By an assembly 
of the representatives of the people of the State 
forming a Constitution, submitting it to the people, 
and when that Constitution was ratified, by the 
election of officers under it. They did not yield to 



18 

external j^owcr or external aiitliority. A State, as 
a political oi-gaiiization, is the product, the politi- 
cal product, of the people within its limits; it can- 
not 1k' created, it never has been created, by any 
external force whatever. But what follows? I am, 
as far as this doctrine is concerned, a State-rights 
man ; not one who Ijelieves in the sovereignty of 
the State over the nation, ncjt one who believes m 
the right of the smallest State, as Delaware, for 
example, to decide Avhether this Republic has a 
right to exist or not; but I am of those who believe 
that State rights are a necessary and essential fact 
in the political organization and Constitution of this 
country; and, while subject to the supreme author- 
ity of the nation, the States are powerful instru- 
ments to protect public liberty, promote the general 
welfare, and secure the blessings of freedom to 
ourselves and our posterity. 

Can a State be destroyed? I answer it can. 
That is to say, its jjolitical existence, including its 
organic law, can be destroyed, — eradicated. By 
whom? By the people who created it. Do 3'ou 
say they have no right to destroy it? I answer, in 
concurrence, they have no right to destroy it, but we 
must look at the fact, and not at theories, nor even 
at the mere declaration of the law. The declaration 
of the law, bolli hniiinn and divine, is, that no man 
has a i-ight to take his own life; but it is possible 
foi- a man to take his life, and when he has taken 



19 

his life, it is useless, it is visionaiy, it is insane for 
men to stand up and say, " This thing cannot be 
done, — God's law is against it." It is done; the 
dead body is before you. And so it is useless to 
say that the people of a State cannot destroy the 
State, because they have no legal right so to do. 
It is not a question of legal right, it is a question 
of fact. 

IS^ow, what are the facts? Take South Carolina, 
for example. Is she a State of the American 
Union? Did she not, in the most solemn manner 
laioAvn to human proceedings, in December, 1860, 
declare that she ceased to exist as a State of the 
American Union ! Did she not proceed, in con- 
formity witli that declaration, to annul all her 
relations to the IS^ational Government, and to create 
new relations with another government, foreign 
and hostile to the government of the United States ? 
and has she not dm-ing these four years, sturdily 
refused to elect any man to office who was known 
to be in favor of the government of the United 
States? and after all this, do you say that South 
Carolina is still a State of the American Union? 

"What else did she do? She preserved her State 
organization; but she transferred her allegiance to 
the so-called Confederate States. Hence as a j)olit- 
ical organization as a body or corporation or State 
which the government of the United States could 
recognize, she, by her own act, ceased to exist. 



20 

"What followed? By the success of our arms, we 
have destroyed the State of South Carolina, that 
professed to owe allegiance to the so-called Con- 
federate States, and the old State of South Caro- 
lina has not been reproduced, and theref(H*e there 
is no State of South Carolina, as a political organi- 
zation, which can be recognized. All men, I think, 
when pnt to the test, will achnit it. If Mr. Khett, 
or any other man from South Carolina, were to 
come to the Senate of the United States and say, 
" South Carolina is a State in this nation ; I have 
been duly elected by the legislature of that State; 
I ask for my seat;" would he not be rejected? and 
for this reason, that South Carolina, at the present 
moment, in the judgment of everybody, has not 
that immediate, and distinct, and unquestioned, 
and unquestionable right to be represented in Con- 
gress, that appertains to Kew York, or Pennsyl- 
vania, or Ohio. What I ask of the country is to 
accept this fact, that the political organization 
known as South Carolina has ceased to exist by 
the will of the people who at the fii'st created, and 
who from the first until 18G0 sustained that organ- 
ization as one of the States of the American 
Union. "Wliat follows? That South Carolina, 
the people and territory, are out of the Uni(m? 
that they have seceded? By no means. The 
jurisdiction and authority which the National Gov- 
ernment originally had over the territory and people 



21 

of South Carolina remain, and we shall exercise 
that jurisdiction and authority just as far and as 
fast as we can. But the result is, that for the pur- 
poses of Government to-day, South Carolina is a 
blank piece of paper, on which may be written a 
new form of government, on wliich a new form of 
government must be written by the people of 
South Carolina, and can be written by nobody 
else. What next? What is the authority of the 
General Government? A State may exist by the 
will of its own people; but it cannot exist, pri- 
marily and originally, as a State of the American 
Union, and, indeed, it cannot exist at all as a 
State of the American Union, except by the 
consent of the representatives of the existing 
government. Therefore, when South Carolina has 
formed her government, and asks for the admission 
of her Senators and Kepresentatives into Congress, 
it is then for the Representatives of the existing 
States and of the people of the Union to say 
whether they shall be admitted or not. At this 
stage in the proceedings there is a legal and con- 
stitutional opportunity to examine their principles 
of Government, and decide whether they are in 
general correspondence with the settled policy of 
the country. 

If you assent to what I have said thus far, then 
I ask you confidentl}^ to accept without argu- 
ment the proposition, which I should be ashamed 



22 

to ar<^iic to any of my countrymen, that a 
Constitution -which disfranchises more than half 
the people of a State is not a "Republican fonn 
of Government," in the eye of the Constitution of 
the United States, and which we are bound to 
protect a people in maintaining- and enjoying. 
It is just at this j^oint that we have the power 
over the j^eople of all the rebel States with refer- 
ence to the Constitutions or forms of Government 
which they may set up. 

With your leave, gentlemen, I will read a state- 
ment, as sucdinct and direct as I could prepare 
u2)on this point, which was framed more than a 
year since, and which I have no disposition to alter 
in the least degree. It is this : That a State can 
exist or cease to exist only ])y the will of the 
people within its limits, and it cannot be created or 
destroyed by the external force or opinion of other 
States, or even by the judgment or action of the 
nation itself; a State when created by the will of 
its people can become a member of the American 
Union only by its own organized action and the 
concurrent action of the existing national Govern- 
ment; when a State has been admitted to the 
Union, no vote, resolution, ordinance, or proceed- 
ing, on its part, however formal in eliarac-ter or 
vigorously sustained, can deprive the National Gov- 
ernment of the legal jurisdiction and sovereignty 
over the territory and people of such State which 



23 

existed previous to the aet of admission, or which 
were acquired thereby; that the effect of tlie so- 
called acts, resolutions, and ordinances of secession 
adopted by the eleven States engaged in the pres- 
ent rebellion is, and can only be, to destroy those 
political organizations as States, Avhile the legal and 
constitutional jurisdiction and authority of the 
National Government over the people and territory 
remain unimpaired; that these several communities 
can be organized into States only by the will of the 
loyal people expressed freely and in the absence of 
all coercion; that States so organized can become 
States of the American Union onl}^ when they shall 
have applied for admission, and their admission 
shall have been authorized by the existing National 
Government; that when a people have organized a 
State upon the basis of allegiance to the Union and 
applied for admission, the character of the institu- 
tions of such proposed State may constitute a suf- 
ficient justification for granting or rejecting such 
application. 

But if there be those among you Avho still 
doubt the authority of the ^N^ational Government 
over the people and territory of the eleven rebel- 
lious States, I ask them to consider the fact that 
the Supreme Court ha^ decided that we have 
been engaged in a territorial war, and that with 
reference to the territory and people in antagonism 
to the Government of the United States, we have 



24 

all tlic I'ights of a belligerent poAver. We have 
carried on the wai' to' a suceessfnl tennination; 
we have snbjngated the rebellious people; we 
have overthrown their militar}^ power; we have 
acquired jurisdiction over the territory, and con- 
sequently we have a right to demand, — as much 
as we should if, in a war with Mexico, we had 
acquired. Chihuahua or Sonoi'a, — that wlien these 
once existing States are reconstinicted and admit- 
ted to the Union, they shall come with institu- 
tions which are in substantial harmony with the 
settled policy of the nation. And therefoin?, upon 
either of these theories, — upon the theory of the 
j^ower of the people of the rebel States, or upon 
the theory of the war power of the Government, — 
we find sufficient reason and justification for what 
we projiose. And I implore you not to allow yoiu* 
minds to be diverted from the conclusion which 
we have thus reached, nor your judgments to be 
biased by the expectation or apprehension that it 
is my purpose, upon this foundation, to demand 
justice for the negro race. I assume not too much 
when I say that you all, and, indeed, all my coun- 
trymen of the loyal States who entertain loyal 
purposes, would accept these conclusions without 
hesitation, if it were understood that the exercise 
of this just power ol' the nation were demanded 
to ])revent the establishment of the office of Gov- 
ernor ill a single fiunily perpetually, or to prevent 



25 

in any applicant State the constitution of an order 
of nobilitj, in which the government of the State 
shonld be vested permanently. If, then, this 
assumption be true, 3'our objection is not to the 
claim that the Greneral Government has this power 
of scrutiny and exclusion, but to the subject- 
matter or the manner of its exercise. It remains 
for me to satisfy you, if I may be able, that the 
exercise of this power in the interest of universal 
suffrage in the South is more important to the 
nation than Avould be its exercise for the exclu- 
sion of the principle of hereditary right in public 
office in any or all of the applicant States. 

In passing, permit me to say that there are four 
methods or forms of government which might be 
established in the rebellious States. First, mili- 
tary governments, responsible to the Executive of 
the country. Secondly, territorial governments, in 
w^hich a law of Congress should define and pre- 
scribe the rights of the people in reference to suf- 
frage, with the power lodged in the President and 
Senate to appoint the Governor, Secretary of State, 
District- Attorney and perhaps some other officers. 
Thirdly, to recognize these States as States in the 
American nation, and this without any inquiry 
and with their old constitutions. And, fourthly, 
by treating the people of these eleven States as 
within the jurisdiction of the General Government, 
but without institutions of any sort, permit them 



2G 

to frame a government anil npi)ly for admission 
to tlie I'^nion, A military government, being- 
irresponsible, expensive, and, l<>r tlie most pai-t, 
tyTannieal, is unaceeptable to the Ameriean people. 
It can be continued for a short period of time only, 
])nt ere long it "woidd be compelled to give place 
to another fonn. Probably, with reference to 
some of the States, as Sonth Carolina and Flor- 
ida, a teiTitorial government wonld be best adapted 
to the existing condition of things. In Arkansas, 
Tennessee and Louisiana there is possibly so large 
a loyal sentiment, that if the colored people were 
allowed the right of suffrage, those States might be 
safely i-estored to their ancient relations to the 
Union. It therefore follows, as the practical result, 
that it will be necessary to adopt diflerent lines of 
policy for diflerent States. 

But I wish 3^ou to consider with me the effect of 
pennitting these eleven States to act as tliough 
they were still States within the Union. I believe 
tin re is one consideration which will control all 
classes of men in this country, without regard to 
their opinions concerning the negro ; one consider- 
ation which will finally control in resisting the 
recognition of those States except upon the basis of 
universal suffrage. I refer to the subject of rep- 
resentation in the lower House of Congress. I 
ha\e o])ser\'('(l, within a few days, that a lead- 
ing NcAV York journal has made the i-einark that 



27 



the friends of negro suffrage were too fast in 
conceding to the rebelKons States the right of 
representation for the four million of colored peo- 
ple. Gentlemen, the fact is, we are neither too 
fast nor too slow. We have nothing to do with 
the question. The Constitution of the United 
States, in its first article, second section, and third 
paragraph, has settled this matter. The words are 
these : — 

"Representatives and direct taxes shall be appor- 
tioned among the several States which may be 
included within this Union, according to their 
respective numbers, which shall be determined by 
adding to the whole number of free persons, includ- 
ing those bound to service for a term of j^cars, and 
excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other 
persons." 

If the Proclamation of Emancipation is to stand, 
these four million of heretofore slaves are to be 
free. They reside in the fifteen old slave State's. 
These States are to have political power in Con- 
gress, not only according to the number of loJiite 
persons Avithin their limits, but according to the 
number of free persons, black as well as white. 
"What is the result? To-day, upon the census 
of 1860, under the three-fifths rule, there are 
nineteen seats in the House of Representatives 
which may be filled by men whose constitu- 
ency, if they were voters, would be negroes of 



28 

the South. Tn 1870 there "will l)e a new eeiisus, 
and a new a])[)()rti()niiient of political power. The 
South will take political power in the House of 
Kepresentatives according to its combined white 
and colored population. I have made an estimate, 
which is probably not far I'rom what Avill prove to 
be true in 1870. There will be about four and a 
half million of colored people in the old slave 
States; there will be about nine million of white 
people in the old slave States; and there will be 
about twenty-two million of people in the Free 
States, — making thirty-five and a half million in 
all. Upon the constitutional basis, j^olitical pow'er 
will be apportioned, in 1870, in tliis wise: To the 
four and a half million of negroes in the South, 
thirty Re2)resentatives; to the nine million white 
people in the South, sixt}^ Representatives — ninety 
Representatives from the South. ' To the t^^'*enty- 
two million of people iu the iJs^orth, one hundred 
and forty-four Rej^resentatives in Congress. ]S^ow, 
wdiat is the inevitable result of the doctrine that 
these eleven rebellious States are States in tlie 
Union, and liave a right to be represented as 
States? It is this : that the nine million of 
white people in the South are to do all the voting 
in the fifteen old slave States; and when you con- 
sider that the war in the South has proved prett}^ 
nearly a war of extermination of all the men 
between twenty and forty-five years of age, and 



29 

that the proportion of women and chikh-en is vastly 
greater than the natural proportion of women and 
children to adult males in any community that has 
not been ravaged by the fires of war, you will 
understand that the number of voters among those 
nine million of people will be but a small propor- 
tion of the whole. These white voters of the South 
are to elect ninety Representatives to Congress. 
And who are these white men of the South? They 
are the men who have been in arms against the 
Republic and against the soldiers of the Republic. 
They are of a race which through two centuries 
has been contaminated by the vilest crime, the 
crime of slavery, until the whole public sentiment 
of the South has become debauched, until it has 
given birth to conspiracies, for the perpetration 
of the crimes of arson, of murder, of treason, of 
assassination, in all their hideous and unnamable 
forms; such crimes as could not have been com- 
mitted, or even contemplated, in any other country 
or by any other j^eople. It is out of the institution 
of slavery that there came the infamous decree by 
which sixty thousand of the soldiers of the Republic 
were starved in the prisons and pens of the South; 
and will the people of this country, if they have a 
prejudice against the negro race such as human 
beings never felt toward any of the animate crea- 
tion, from the foundation of the world until now — 
will the people of this country, if they have such a 



30 

prejudice c\'en, exeliule the negroes from the ballot- 
box, and allow it to be controlled by these nine mil- 
lion, or the representatives of these nine million, 
of white people in the South? Under all circum- 
stances, a majority, a confessed majority of the 
white people of the South, have shown themselves 
the enemies of this country; the loyalists among 
them, — the men who have stood by the old flag, — 
have been few, '^ like angel visits." On the other 
hand, the black man, despised, down-trodden, 
with no reason to cheer or bless the flag of the 
Kepublic, Avhicli to him, from the foundation of 
the government until the signal shot uj^on Fort 
Sumter, had been only the ensign of oppression, 
with no reminiscences or traditions in its behalf, 
has proved true to the country, has led and guided 
and cheered the soldier, has enlisted in the 
armies of the Kepuljlic, has fought for the integ- 
rity of the nation and the safety of freedom; and 
can it l)e — can it he in the heart of any man of the 
twenty million of inhabitants in the ^orth, with an 
ingratitude unexampled save in the instance of 
Judas Iscariot, now to consign these people, their 
race, and their posterity to the tender mercies of 
the men who instituted Libby Prison and Ander- 
sonville, who sent to the islands of the ocean for 
the pestilence with which they hoped to blast the 
cities of the North, who instituted arson as a 
plan, and Anally closed their career of systematic 



'^ 1 

and organized crime by the assassination of the 
President of the Repubhc? Do 3'ou propose to 
allow these people to send ninety representatives 
into the Congress of the United States, when 
according to nnmbers they Avould be entitled to but 
sixty? Upon the basis of thirty-five and a half mil- 
lion of people, a constituency would consist of one 
hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants; and, the 
nmnber of members of the House being limited by 
law to tAvo hiuidred and thirty-four, the white 
voters of the South would take sixty members in 
their own right, and thirty more upon the basis of 
the negro population — giving them ninety votes. 
They would then lack but twenty-eight votes of a 
majority in the House of Representatives; twenty- 
eight votes, which l!^e^Y York alone could give, 
which two or three other States in a moment of 
disaflection might give. And what is the result, 
or at least the possible danger? The government 
of this country is in the hands of rebels. "Will not 
the men interested in public securities look to it 
that no such exigency arise? We have issued two 
and a half thousand million of public securities, 
the value of which depends entirely upon the good 
faith of the people of this country. If you put 
the power into the hands of these rebels, one of 
two things is sure to happen, — either that the rebel 
debt will be foisted upon the N^ational Government 
or the IS^ational debt will be repudiated. And more 



32 

than that; if these nine million of people in the 
South are to elect ninety representatives, they will 
elect one for every one hundred thousand white 
persons represented by the voting ]:)opulation ; while 
in the Xorth it will take one hundred and fifty 
thousand persons to constitute the basis of rep- 
resentation; that is', two voters in the South will 
have equal power in the government of the coun- 
try with three voters in the Xorth. I submit that 
the people of the Xorth, unless they are infatuated, 
so that there is no hope of their being able to com- 
prehend the means necessary for their own salva- 
tion, will reject, — once, twice, thrice, continually 
reject, — every proposition which recognizes those 
States as States of the American Union. One of 
two things must happen, — either that the negro 
shall be allowed to vote, or that, by an amendment 
to the Constitution, the representative power shall 
be based upon voters ; and if, as is contended by 
those who oppose negro sufiVage, these eleven 
States are States in the Union, as it requires three- 
fourths of the States to make an amendment to the 
Constitution, and as the eleven States are more 
than one-fourth, and are interested in the mainte- 
nance of the present condition of things, there is 
no hope of an amenchnent of the Constitution. 
Therefore, fellow-citizens and countrymen, you 
have but one path before you, and, thank God, it 
is the path of justice, and in it you must walk; 



33 

and that path leads you to contend for and to 
secure to the negro the right of suffrage in this 
country. 

"We are told that the negroes will vote with thair 
masters. I do not Iniow whether they will or not; 
but it is no excuse for us, in denying them their 
rights, to say that they will ^ote in a particular 
way. If they have the right to vote, we are not to 
trample that right under our feet, because we infer 
that they will hereafter exercise it in some way 
disagreeable to us. But the same persons told us, 
in 1861 and 1862, that if we put arms in the hands 
of the negroes, they would fight on the side of 
their masters. Was that prediction verified? By 
no means. And neither will this prediction be 
verified, unless the spirit of the masters is changed, 
and they vote on the side of this government. 

It is well enough, also, for its to consider the 
subject of voting with reference to the negroes of 
the South. We have a constitutional provision in 
Massachusetts, that no man shall vote unless he can 
read the Constitution and write his OAvn name. A 
very proper provision; but consider that it was 
instituted with reference to men about whose 
loyalty there was no question ; but only this ques- 
tion existed, as to whether they were competent to 
judge of the administration of public aifairs. In 
the ordinary course of things, it is necessary 
that men should be able to read and write, in 



34 

order to decide intelligently upon questions of 
public policy. AYe do not, to-day, ask suffrage 
for the negroes because they are competent to 
judge of questions of public policy, but "vve ask for 
suffrage for them because they are in fiivor of this 
government, and tlie white people of tlie South are 
against it. That is an issue already made up. 
Parties have taken their stand. The whites, by a 
majority, are on one side, the blacks, unanimously, 
are on the other. They understand that question, 
and that is the vital question to us. It is not 
whether, in South Carolina, judges shall be elected 
by the people, or appointed by the governor; that 
question very likely would be better solved by men 
who coidd read and write. But the question in 
which we are concerned is not a question of internal 
policy, not a question of local or of State adminis- 
tration, but the question is, " Shall this government 
exist? " We know that the negro is in favor of its 
existence, and, therefore, for all the purposes of 
voting, whether he can read and write or not, he is 
a safe depositary of power; and therefore I am in 
favor of allowing him to vote, without going into 
any inquiry whether he can read and write, because 
his power at the ballot-box is now essential to us, 
just exactly as his power in the field witli tlic bay- 
onet was essential to us during the war. In this 
country there are but two means of exercising power. 
One is by the bayonet, in time of war; tlie other is 



35 

by the ballot, in time of peace. AYe have taken the 
bayonet, in time of war, out of the hands of onr rebel 
enemies. What are we invited to do? To put the 
ballot, which is the instrument of power in time of 
peace, into the hands of our enemies, and deprive 
our friends of the privilege of exercising that 
power. Was there ever any infatuation equal to 
this ? If these four million who have been loyal to 
the flag and to the Union had been Germans in the 
South, instead of negroes, not a man would have 
raised the question whether these loyal Germans, 
upon the restoration of the government, should be 
allowed to vote. Every man, with one voice, with 
one acclaim, would have said, " They, of course, 
are to vote. The only question remaining is, 
whether the rebels who have been in arms against 
this government are to be permitted to vote or not." 
You thus see, my friends, how far the country has 
been drawn aside from the true question at issue by 
that ancient prejudice, originating in slavery, and 
which has been fostered, embittered, and spread by 
the influence of slavery throughout this country. 
You are not willing to allow to a patriot under a 
black skin that which you would readily concede to 
a patriot under a white skin. Are the people of 
this country more disposed to put power into the 
hands of rebels because they are white, than into 
the hands of patriots Avho happen to be black? 



36 

Tliei'c arc some over-seiisitivc persons who are 
ratlici- ivluetant to give suffrage to the negroes, 
Ix'cause they f'eai' it Avill irritate tlic wliite ])eople of 
the 8onth. "\Yell, my friends, 1 am for coneiHation. 
T see already tliat wvy few men in the Sontli ai"e to 
])(■ ])unished. Xohody among the whites is to be 
disfraneliised. Of all the men who are suffered to 
live and to remain in the South, — white people, I 
mean, — all will enjoy the elective franchise; and 
I have ali'cady reached the conclusion, that there 
arc l)ut two men Avho are in any danger of suffering 
the penalty of the law for the crime of treason. 
They are Davis and Lee. I may turn aside for a 
single moment to say here, Avhat I think will find a 
response in the judgment of the country, that those 
two men, above all others, deserve to pay the 
highest forfeit ever exacted by human tribunals 
from those who have violated human law. There 
w^ere many leaders in the rebellion. The guilt of 
those men is inconceivable, and of course inexpres- 
sible. But Davis and Lee, by a peculiar supremacy, 
were the leaders. One was at the head of the mili- 
tary and the (^ther at the head of the civil and 
military power of the so-called Confederacy. Tf 
we select these and execute them, it will be a warn- 
ing to all men, in all time, that it is not safe to be 
the leaders of a rebellion against this novt'rnmcnt. 
Tlici-cfoi'e, by tlieii' execution, you take all the 
seeiu'itv of the future which you can take. II" vou 



37 

go bej^ond these two men, I know not where 3 ou 
are to stop. There are ten, twenty, fifty, one hun- 
dred, perhaps one thousand other men who are 
equally gnilty, eaeh Avith the other. Inasmuch as 
no countr}^ can aftbrd to exact blood, to any con- 
siderable extent, for political crimes, Ave should do 
that which will be justified upon the page of 
histor}^, and Avhich aaIII lead to all the practical 
benefits which can result from the punishment 
of any number of traitors. By a peculiar preemi- 
nence these tAYO men are responsible to the country 
for the sloAA^ murder of our soldiers in prison. At 
au}^ moment, DaA^is or Lee could haA^e put a stop 
to this cruel torture and murder of men, through 
months and almost years of sufi'ering. It cannot 
be said, perhaps, of an}^ other man engaged in 
the rebellion, that it AA^as in his poAA^er to liaA'e 
suppressed this s^^stematic murder; and therefore 
they are peculiarly responsible to the army of 
Republic, to the country, and to mankind for this 
great crime. It is only second in turpitude to 
that of Mithridates, king of Pontus, aa-Iio seized a 
Roman proconsul, cariied him to the city of 
Pergamus, and ordered melted gold to be poured 
doAA^n his throat. At the same time he sent a letter 
to all the cities and proA'inces of his kingdom, 
directing his officers to seize all persons OAving 
allegiance to Rome, and execute them on a day 



38 

naiiK'd. Uutk'!' this order a hundred and fifty 
thousand men, women and ehikh'en were murdered. 

Cicero referred to this crime, after the lapse 
of more tlian twenty years, in his speech, — the 
greatest perhaps of liis s})eeches, — his speecli for 
the Manihan law, in Aviiich he urgx'd the appoint- 
ment of Pompey to tlie supreme command oi' the 
army as the only means by which this crime and 
olfcnce to Rome might be avenged in common with 
other crimes and wrongs which the state had 
suftcred at the hands of its enemies. 

But however heinous the crime of the reljels 
in the treatment of prisoners, and however respon- 
siljle the Southern people are for the war and 
its woes, there Avill Ije no condign punishment 
except wdiat is inflicted upon these two men; 
possibly even they may escape; but there is one 
punishment which we can carry home to every 
rebel in the South. lie has been afraid of negro 
cqualit}'. The ballot is, in a certain sense, the 
spnbol of equality. The Declaration of Inde- 
pendence does not mean that " all men arc created 
equal " in e^■ely respect, but tliat no man is, by 
natiii'e, in a state of i)olitical subserviency to any 
other man. All ai'C equal, — none supivme. 1 
know of no j>unishnient wliiih would be so uni- 
versally eiiicacious throughout tlu- i-ebel Slates as 
to i)iil into the hand of the negro the l^allot, 
thai at the l)allot-box once a veai', or once in 



39 

two years, or once in four years, he may stand 
the equal of his former master. This is a punish- 
ment that will go home to every rebel in the eleven 
rebellious States. 

By the Emancipation ProcLamation, we have 
taken the initiatory steps towards the freedom of 
the negro; but how are liberties secured? Are 
there laboring men here to-day? Wliat security 
have they for the integrity of their famihes ? "What 
security have they for the benefit of the writ of 
hcibeas corpus? What security have they for 
the education of their children at the public 
expense? What security have they that their 
testimony shall be taken in a court of justice? 
Their security is in the ballot. We say tliat men 
possess certain " natural, essential and unalienable 
rights." How are those rights to be defended? 
Either by the bayonet or by the ballot. If the 
negroes are to protect themselves in their rights, 
it is for the country to give them the means by 
giving them the ballot. And it is not less in 
favor of the South than of the whole country 
that we advocate negro suffrage. We of Massa- 
chusetts remember the difficulties in Rhode Island, 
less than quarter of a century ago, when men of 
our own race, having the political power of the 
State in their own hands exclusively, refused to 
recognize the rights of other men of the same race, 
the same blood, equally qualified with themselves, 



40 

until tilt' concession was extorted i'roni them by 
revolution; and do you expect that the white 
men oi' the South, if you allow them to institute 
governments with political ])()\vcr in thcii- own 
hands, exclusively, will ever concede it to the 
negroes, until the negroes extort it I'roni tlicm at 
the point of the bayonet? These negroes are four 
million to-day. They will increase through 
decades and centuries until they are eight, ten, 
twenty million, and if you do not give them the 
right of suffrage now, at some future time, they or 
their posterity will demand it and secure it by force. 
Instead, therefore, of being the enemies of the 
South, when we demand negro suffrage, we are its 
real friends, because Ave take security in their 
behalf, at this early day, that hereafter they shall 
be saved from intestine commotion, from ci^ il and 
social wars. 

Perversion and misrepresentation are power- 
less, and argument thus far has not been heard, 
in behalf of the monstrous proposition that the 
]N^orth should consent to such a reconstruction 
of this govenmient as will guarantee perpet- 
ually to two white men in the South tlie i)olil- 
ical power that is accorded to three white men 
in the IS^ortli. ^\ ho are they and what are 
they, if they exist at all within the limits of the 
loyal States, who ai-e [jrepared to maintain the 
doctrine that Virginia, South Carolina, Florida and 



41 

Texas have the same immediate and indisputable 
right of representation as is enjoyed by ]N'ew York, 
lUinois, Pennsylvania and California? That they 
have not this right is conceded by all, or by nearly 
all among lis. ISTo one is prepared to accept South 
Carolina with her old constitution. The veriest 
stickler for State rights demands some alteration. 
This demand, however slight it may seem in its 
practical application, is the equivalent in principle, 
'of the demand I make. South Carolina is in the 
Union with her constitution of 1860, or as a politi- 
cal organization known as a State she is not in 
the Union at all ; and if she is not in the Union 
as a State, her application for admission may 
be rejected until she appears with a frame of 
government in substantial harmony with the pol- 
icy of the nation. You must be just to the 
negro. When you invited him to assume the 
uniform of the army of the Republic, Avhen 
3^ou put the musket into his hand, when you 
asked him to jeopard, and, if need • be, to sacri- 
fice his life in defence of the country, you did, 
in fact, if not in terms, agree that if the cause 
— his cause as well as your own — was success- 
ful, he should have the same part in the govern- 
ment as yourselves, and therefore you cannot, 
without the basest ingratitude, now reject him. 
I am compelled to declare to you, my friends, 
in all sincerity, heinous as are the crimes of these 



42 

Southern men, infamous as they will be upon the 
l)age of history, that if the people of the Xorth, 
now that they have acquired liljerty for themselves, 
now that they have secm'ed the restorati(jn of the 
Union l)y the services and sacrifices of the negro, 
in common Avitli their own ser^■i(•(.'s and llieir own 
sacrifices, should surrender him, bound hand and 
foot, as he will be, if he does not enjoy the right of 
suffrage, into the custody of his enemies, made 
doubly ferocious by the events of this war, and mto* 
the custody of your enemies, also, your position 
upon the page of history, and in the judgment of 
posterity, will be only less infamous than theirs. I 
know of no excuse that we can offer to ourselves, I 
know of no excuse that we can offer to this genera- 
tion in other coimtries, I know of no excuse that 
we can offer to mankind in the coming ages, if, 
after having accepted the services and the blood of 
these men in defence of the flag, of liberty and of 
the Union, we turn and conspire with these their 
ancient oj^pressors and tram2)le our faithful allies 
in the dust. Let it not be that this infamy is 
reserved for the people of this country. Of all the 
woes of Avhicli avc have drunk through these four 
years, of all the instances of degradation wliich 
have been treasured iij) in the long annals of man- 
kind, I know of none which will compare with 
the woe and the degradation of a free peoj^le, 
who, having secured their OAvn liberties by the 



43 

blood of tlieii' fellow men, with base ingratitude 
ofiered their allies to the common enemy, to the 
enemy of the country, of liberty and of mankind. 

I have thus, gentlemen, attempted to demon- 
strate the existence of sufficient and constitutional 
power in the government to enable Congress to 
hold the people of the rebellious districts under the 
jurisdiction of the national authority, wdiile they 
are excluded from any voice in the public councils, 
until they frame State governments which are truly 
republican in form, and until evidence is furnished 
that the public sentiment of each proposed State is 
so far loyal as to justify the expectation that its 
general policy will accord A\dth the general policy 
of the country; and this without claiming to inter- 
fere, and without interfering with the mstitutions 
of a State. 

I have also sought to demonstrate that the exer- 
cise of this power is necessary for the security of 
the loyal people, the preservation of the public 
credit, as it is connected with and dependent upon 
a constant exhibition of good faith, by the people 
and the public authorities. Moreover, you cannot 
fail to be influenced by the plain statement that, 
under the constitution, you must secure the elective 
franchise to the negro, or surrender your own 
equal right in the government of the country; and 
finally, you are not insensible to the obligations 



44 

resting iii)on you, to secure to all men the means 
of protecting those rights of person and property, 
Avhich are the evidences of freedom and its con- 
stant su};port. This i)olicv furnishes at (uice secu- 
rity to the country, equality to the ^vhites of all 
sections, justice to the negro, universal punishment 
of the rebels, the only efficient means of stimulating 
the industry and developing the resources of the 
South, and at last adequate and permanent protec- 
tion against civil and social feuds and wars in all 
portions of the country where the two races are 
nearly equal in numbers or strength. 

I have assumed also that the instances of pardon 
of rebels l)y the President will Ije increased, and 
that in })eace we shall abandon the policy which 
was inaugurated in time of wai", and adapted to a 
time of war, of confiscating the property of rebels 
who are not distinguished b}^ any special criminal- 
it}' from their associates in treason. "Whether you 
indict and try persons, or confiscate their property, 
the number of the guilty is so great, that many 
necessarily escape. During the war, we seized the 
property of individual enemies, as a means of 
diminishing the })ower of those in arms against us. 
The reason no longer remains, and it will prol)al)ly 
be thought wise to modily our legislation so as to 
relieve the mass of Southern people Irom all ai)pre- 
hension. So, too, we can ha\ e no secui'ity for the 
loyalty of a State, until a clear majority of its po])- 



45 

ulation are known to Ijc worthy of trust. "When- 
ever a State is restored to the Union, the lo^'al 
sentiment should be sufficiently powerful to permit 
those who have been disloyal to exercise the elec- 
tive franchise; otherwise you nourish alienation, 
and encourage the elements of treason and war. 
Our policy towards the mass of our enemies must 
be liberal. Restore to them, with as little delay as 
possible, all the personal, civil and political rights 
which they enjoyed previous to the rebellion. 
With such an exhibition of magnanimity towards 
those w^ho have been our enemies, not even they 
can justly complain when Ave demand the elective 
franchise for those who have been our friends. 
Thus does this policy appear to be wise and con- 
servative as a national policy; thus is it necessary 
to ourselves; thus is it just to our friends; thus is 
it magnanmious to our enemies. 



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009 086 449 fi 





